UNC Basketball: The Top 5 Highlights from UNC's Postseason

The North Carolina Tar Heels didn't win as many games during the regular season as folks would have hoped. They made up for it in the postseason, though.

Their run started in the ACC tournament, where the fifth-seeded Heels made it all the way to the title game before ultimately falling to Notre Dame.

Then, in the Big Dance, UNC again made a nice run, finally getting pushed out in the Sweet 16 by Wisconsin.

A shaky regular season, especially the final month or so, was somewhat saved by a 5-2 tournament record. The Tar Heel faithful always expect Final Fours and championships, but there were still highlights to be had in this year's postseason journey.

Here are the top five highlights in semi-chronological order (since some performances overlap).

41-Point Second Half Against UVA

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Tar Heel fans were familiar with the Virginia Cavaliers' defense. When these two teams faced off during the regular season, North Carolina managed just 64 points. Virginia had the nation's No. 1 scoring defense and third-best opponent field-goal percentage.

That's what made Carolina's second half against Virginia in the ACC tournament even more satisfying. With just a 30-point first half in the sort of sluggish game the Cavaliers are used to, North Carolina came out after halftime and poured in 41 points on that vaunted defense.

Justin Jackson finished with a team-high 22 points, while Marcus Paige and Brice Johnson also finished in double figures. The Heels hit seven of their 14 three-point attempts and proved to themselves and the rest of the country that they would be formidable this postseason.

The win moved North Carolina into the finals of the conference tournament.

Justin Jackson from Deep

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Justin Jackson, North Carolina's youngest starter, seemed to rise to the occasion when the games got important.

He shot very well from the floor all season, particularly close to the hoop. However, Jackson struggled mightily all year from beyond the arc. That seemed to change once tournament play began.

In the ACC tournament, Jackson hit six of his first nine attempts from three before a championship-game meltdown against Notre Dame saw him shoot 0-of-7. Then, in the NCAA tournament, wiping away the Notre Dame performance, Jackson hit five of his seven threes.

Overall, in postseason play, Jackson shot 11-of-23 from three, good for 48 percent. Compare that to his 30 percent season average from distance and it becomes clear that Jackson figured something out with his shot near the end of the season.

Second-Half Marcus Paige

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Marcus Paige has been a second-half player for his entire career. Even during his stellar sophomore season, Paige would overshadow subpar openings with an excellent final 20 minutes. He pulled the same stunt during this postseason.

Against Harvard, Paige had a quiet first half and still managed to hit a number of big shots down the stretch to help the team advance. In the following game against Arkansas, the difference was even more drastic.

Paige finished with a team-high 22 points, a whopping 20 of which came after halftime. He went 3-of-3 from distance in the second half and a perfect 9-of-9 from the line for the game.

Then, in North Carolina's elimination game, Paige again hit several big threes in the final minutes to pull the team back within reach of Wisconsin before the Badgers ultimately held on for a victory.

Whether it's because of other team responsibilities weighing on him, injuries holding him back or something else entirely, Paige isn't able to consistently deliver 40 minutes of production for UNC. He's a situational player, though, in that he plays his best when the team needs it most.

Nate Britt off the Bench

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Nate Britt has played through a very strange season. His overall numbers are pretty poor other than his free-throw percentage. He also saw his minutes yanked around rather obtrusively throughout the second half of the season.

The latter point is what makes Britt's tournament performance against Arkansas so special.

During the final two rounds of the ACC tournament and the first round of the NCAA tournament, Britt played a total of 13 minutes. Then, in that third-round matchup against the Razorbacks, when the team needed a jolt, Britt came in for 23 impressive minutes.

It was the longest he'd played in a game since mid-February. With both teams wracking up fouls and turnovers like they weren't keeping track, Britt played the eighth-most minutes of anyone in the game from either team.

He scored 10 points, grabbed four rebounds, hit the only non-Paige three for North Carolina and went a pivotal 5-of-5 from the foul line, turning the ball over just once.

Britt hadn't been much of a factor for this team since late January, but it certainly needed him to advance to the Sweet 16.

Topping Wisconsin from Three

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Even though North Carolina lost the game, the team topping the Wisconsin Badgers from the three-point line in the Sweet 16 is one of the more remarkable outcomes this team has had.

Even though ranking 31st in made threes isn't terribly grand, because of its slow-as-mud pace, the Badgers' efficiency and effectiveness helped them grab the No. 1 overall offensive rating in the country, according to Sports-Reference. Out of 351 programs, the Badgers' offense was the best.

Combined with North Carolina's 247th national ranking in threes, the Heels were ripe for a blowout, at least from beyond the arc.

Instead, UNC was the victor in that regard. The team hit 8-of-13 threes while Wisconsin managed to connect on just seven of its 21 shots. Not only did UNC make more threes, it did so much more efficiently. If the Heels had been able to scrape out a win in the game, the three-point performance would have been the reason why.